French expression: Changer de cap
Friday June 26, 2009
What does the French expression changer de cap mean? Click the link above to learn all about it, and then come back here to share your thoughts.
More: French expressions
More: French expressions
Comments
A sailor would interpret this as “changing tack” or “taking another tack”. Might be closer to to the sense, there are numerous expressions in French that come from sailing, such as “avoir le vent en poupe”.
June 27,2009
I already knew what “Changer de cap” means because on the cover of Readers Digest in French, the cover story is on French rocker/actor Johnny Hallyday and he talks about “Changer de cap”. I looked it up in my french/english dictionary and it gave me the same meaning! A lot of people need to “Changer de cap!” Au revoir!
Est-ce que cet expression a aussi le sens de “change the subject” en anglais?
I didn’t know the word cap, so when I saw the meaning of the phrase I thought it must refer to a cape (geographical). But on consulting the dico I realized it refers to the Latin word for head. English speaking sailors change their compass heading. The rest of us head in a different direction.
“Avoir le vent en poupe”, qu’est-ce que ca veut dire? In english or french, s’il vous plait.
“Changer le sujet” est plus petit de “changer le cap”. On se dirige vers une nouvelle idée, forcement différente que l’autre.
Debora – Avoir le vent en poupe means “to be on a roll, in the groove, riding high.”
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Finally an expression that’s really easy to remember! I shall now just think of someone putting on a new hat.